Bat removal at Lorn delayed

Maitland Council is remaining upbeat despite being forced to abandon plans to lop trees housing thousands of flying foxes at Lorn.

Council has a State Government licence to remove up to 23 trees after residents complained about the smell and noise from the bat colony.

But an ecologists report has found it would cause an unacceptable level of stress to the animals, especially scores of females that are pregnant.

Council's General Manager David Evans says the delay is unfortunate.

"Of course we empathise with the residents, you know this is not the outcome that any of us were looking for at all," he said.

"We were certainly very hopeful that we'd be able to go in and do the modification work but we can't go against the law and rightly there was a condition on the certificate issued that require the camp to be assessed before we went in and did the work."

But Mr Evans says on a positive note staff will not have to reapply for a licence.

"The certification that we've been issued is valid for two years so obviously as soon as there's an opportunity to go in and do the work and that would be contingent on the cycle of the flying foxes we can do that without the need to go through the approvals process," he said.